A wide variety of enhanced communications services are available to a user of a modern public switched telephone network (PSTN). These services include voice mail, audio name screening, flexible call forwarding (FCF), and deluxe calling name delivery. These services are considered valuable services by many users because they enhance conventional telephone service. For example, when FCF is activated by a subscriber/called party, FCF automatically forwards an incoming call from a calling party to terminating equipment associated with a directory number that the called party has chosen. In another example, audio name screening allows a subscriber/called party to hear the name of the calling party before answering the call. Unfortunately, providing these types of services creates billing problems, as well as call origination problems, that are time-consuming and cumbersome to reconcile on the part of a telecommunication service provider. Providing enhanced communications services would be considered much simpler and more efficient to the telecommunication service provider if billing could be automatically reconciled while also maintaining original calling information.
Today, special handling of a call or communication is typically necessary for an enhanced communications service that requires call supervision or an announcement to a subscriber's telephone line. Specifically, special handling of the call includes routing the call to a separate system or network element, such as a service node. The service node then handles the remainder of the call by interrupting the normal call flow from the calling party to the called party, implementing the subscriber's service, and reoriginating the call on the service node for completion of the call to the called party or other designated location.
One problem encountered by the service provider is that the reorigination of the call from the service node creates a separate billing to the service node instead of the subscriber of the service. The call effectively terminates at the service node due to the nature of the network element and instructions provided by another network element. In essence, a second call originates from the service node to complete the call process. Data fields in a call structure change to accommodate the new call, thereby changing a calling party parameter from the original calling party to that of the service node and a called party parameter to that of the redirect party number. Consequently, billing information is no longer matched with the subscriber. Hence, the service provider must maintain records of the calls originating from the service node, as well as the subscriber information, to reconcile the billing of services and calls with the appropriate subscribers.
To do so, can be very time-consuming and difficult for the service provider. Such a task is likely to require multiple databases and complex programming to perform the synchronization of data. In addition, a mechanism must remain in place to monitor and track the use of services by the subscribers. Further, due to the complexity of synchronizing billing information and the need for additional equipment to address this problem, the service provider is likely to unavoidably incur additional costs and expenses, which are likely to be passed on to the subscriber.
Another problem that occurs due to reorigination of the call on the service node is the call appears as if it originated at the service node as opposed to a calling line of the calling party. As previously mentioned, the data fields in the call structure change the calling party parameter to that of the service node. Hence, original calling party information is ruined. For example, if a called party subscribed to deluxe caller identification, the caller ID display unit would not provide proper identification of the originating caller. The prior art system has no procedure for rectifying this problem.
Furthermore, the current system is limited to sending and processing approximately twenty digits of data in a string. To correct the above-mentioned problems, data strings would have to be longer and the system would have to be capable of processing the long strings of data. Consequently, this limitation prohibits providing instructions for reformatting data fields so that call origination can be preserved, as well as providing a means for billing information synchronization without interrupting and reoriginating the call.
Therefore, there is a need for a system and method that provides automatic synchronization of billing information so that a subscriber can be directly billed for use of an enhanced communication service.
In addition, there is a need for a system and method that provides a means for reducing the number of databases and equipment necessary to reconcile billing information while improving efficiency and creating simplicity.
There is also a need for a system and method that provides a means for resolving call origination problems.
There is a further need for a system and method that provides a standard format for processing long strings of data representing information on how a call is to be configured for the synchronization of billing information and for maintaining call origination.
Finally, there is a need for a system and method that reduces the costs incurred by the service provider for synchronization of billing information.